Kerry 'pleased' with Syria chemical disarmament

BALI, Indonesia (AP) Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States and Russia are "very pleased" with the progress made so far in destroying Syria's chemical weapons stocks.

He says Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime deserves credit for its compliance with a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the elimination of the weapons. Speaking on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific economic conference in Indonesia on Monday, Kerry said Assad was not off the hook, but needs to continue to comply with U.N. demands.

He says it is "extremely significant" that the first weapons were destroyed Sunday, just a few weeks after the resolution passed the U.N. He called Sunday's steps toward dismantling and destroying Syria's chemical weapons arsenal "a good beginning."

AP

This story has been automatically published from the Associated Press wire which uses US spellings